The Room

You awake in a dark space. The smell of musty water assaults your nose as you stagger upright against what feels to be a jagged wall. You notice your hands are locked together behind your back with something horribly [[sticky and slimy. -> Picture]] You cannot see more than a foot in front of you. Your head hurts and you cannot remember anything. [[Call out.]] [[Make your way around.]]

You try to call for help but nothing more than a broken whimper escapes your mouth as you feel something claw its way up your throat and chew its way out. You sink to the floor as it feeds from you. You're dead, Jimmy.

You edge your way around the area with your back to the wall as a guideline. It's cold and rough, dampening the back of your shirt as you progress. Eventually you determine that you're in a small room, about four paces across each way. You also felt a small bump along one of the walls. Hopefully a door knob of some kind. The center of the room is too dark to see from the walls. You cannot make anything out of it besides a heavy sinking in your stomach. [[Go for the door knob.]] [[Check center of the room.]]

You decide to ignore the center of the room and go for the door knob. You make your way along the wall until you find the bump. Unfortunately your hands are still stuck behind your back and you cannot move your fingers. You crouch and realize that it is indeed a small door knob, but for some reason the sinking feeling isn't going away. You try to roll the knob with your shoulder but the sinking feeling isn't going away. You try to hit it against your back but the sinking feeling isn't going away. You grip it with your teeth but the sinking feeling isn't going away and all you taste is ash as the door knob crumbles in your mouth and you feel yourself follow suit. Why don't you learn, Johnny?

You stumble forward into the center of the room and find a [[dying, twitching crow. -> Crow]] Maggots have already made their home into its' body and you can't believe you didn't hear the buzzing of flies until now. "Please don't go. I love you so much!" It cried. It stunk. The feeling in your stomach went away, replaced with something else. [[Stomp it.]] [[Kick dirt over it.]]

It was hate in your heart. You bring your foot down cruelly on the bird, ignoring its' cries of pain, sending bits of bug everywhere. Flies buzzed around your ears with warnings and whispers that the crow will be avenged. It feels good. Eventually the bird is nothing but pulp under your shoes. You shake off the flies as best as you can. The door clicks open, the sound of it echoing off of the walls of the now silent room. You're a cruel one, Hannah. [[Crawl to the door -> Continue.]]

It was pity in your heart. You know that one day you will be happy to know you were kind to at least one miserable creature in your life. You give it an upset glance and kick some dirt over it to the best of your ability. Maybe it will keep some bugs off of it. The bird seems to appriaciate the effort and coos a couple times before falling silent. The door clicks open. As compassionite as ever, Diana. [[Walk to the door -> Continue.]]

You make your way to the open entry and find yourself in a large [[grocery store.]] The bright lights hurt your eyes and you flinch back to the door, only to find it gone. Strange, but you're not complaining. Now if only you could move your arms. Rows of food seem to taunt you and remind you of your own hunger. You try to reach towards a box but the shelves seem to shift away whenever you get close. A strange, dark figure is at the end of the aisle in front of you flickering in and out of existence. It is featureless and every time you look at it, it morphs into another shape. It's feels as if you could be pulled into the dark depths of it. [[Approach it.]] [[Food.]] [[Stay where you are.]]

It's gross...... <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Speleo-Faux-Monnayeurs-06.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="Slime"> "Grotte des Faux-Monayeurs, Suisse." by "Rama" Liscenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France license. (CC-BY-SA-2.0-FR). Accessed 9 February 2017. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Speleo-Faux-Monnayeurs-06.jpg

The sad crow... <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Dead_crow_4.JPG" width="500" height="300" alt="Crow"> "Dead Rook" sourced from Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

A store like any other you suppose... <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Coles_South_City_aisle.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="Slime"> "Coles South City." by "Bidgee" Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Australia license. Accessed 11 February 2017. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Coles_South_City_aisle.jpg

You tentatively step down the food aisle toward the shadow. You can feel the cold tiles through your thin shoes. (But are they covered in blood or dirt?) The darkness in it swirls seductively, beckoning you ever closer. You stop yourself from colliding with it by inches. The image of an arm through your stomach floats through your brain and causes you to freeze. Was that real? "Are you lost? You shouldn't be here." The fuzzy voice comes from around you. [["Yes. Please help."]] [["I don't know. Where am I?"]]

You stubbornly roach for a bag of chips, but the shelf edges away from you again. The air around you feels wrong and stretched, but you keep going, desperate for some kind of sustenance. When you look at your arm again you nearly scream. From the elbow up your arm is of normal proportions, but after that it's stretched out to impossible lengths, grasping at the space in front of the shelf that doesn't want to be touched. You feel sick and shut your eyes tightly, yanking your arm back for minutes until it collides with your side, at normal lengths again. You will not be doing that again. The figure at the end of the aisle is still flickering in and out of reality. [[Stay where you are.]] [[Approach it.]]

You decide to stay where you are and watch the figure's movements before moving. ... ... ... The shadow keeps flickering and your stomach keeps growling. Your stomach hurts so horribly that after awhile that you double over in pain. It feels as if you are being stabbed! Your vision goes fuzzy and your legs are noodles. The floor slowly creeps toward you. When you look up again, teary-eyed, you see the shadow figure inches from you with an arm through your abdomen. It has gore all over the front of it. "It's rude to stare." A disembodied voice says from around you, consuming you and the very air you breathed. You cough and sputter and try to weakly pull away but it's useless and painful and why can't you move? Why won't you die already? With another blink the shadow is back at the end of the aisle, flickering in and out of existence. It is clean and so is the front of your shirt. The pain is gone. [[Food.]] [[Approach it.]]

The shadow is a yawning abyss, but you get the feeling it is smiling at you. "Come through here. All will be well." The figure raises its' arm (why did you flinch?) and a hole with no visible bottom opens up on the floor. You jump through without thinking and land heavily. You're in a dark space. The smell of musty water assaults your nose as you stagger upright against what feels to be a jagged wall. You notice your hands are still locked together behind your back with something horribly [[sticky and slimy. -> Picture]] You cannot see more than a foot in front of you. You curl up in the center of the room and give up.

You are embarrassed of how your voice cracks, but you have no idea what is going on. "It's alright, we all forget sometimes. The answer will come to you eventually, Dylan." The voice sounds almost soothing now. You two wait in silence, your mind racing and your heart beating erratically against your ribs. "Now, do you know where you are, Riley?" It asked again. [["I don't know. Where am I?"]] [["Yes. Please help."]]